


Christmas Hope

by guessimdemoms



Category: Original Work
Genre: Canon Gay Character, Christmas Fluff, First Meetings, M/M, Maybe - Freeform, Red String of Fate, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-21 10:16:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21297821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guessimdemoms/pseuds/guessimdemoms
Summary: Christmas time brought more pain then joy in James's life, but a chance meeting one wintery night might change his mind about the holiday, and romance, for good.
Kudos: 3





	Christmas Hope

James lit up a cigarette and blew out smoke into the cool night air.   
Christmas. Sucked.   
It sucked for a variety of reasons, mass consumerism, obligations to see your family, traffic everywhere, but for him Christmas sucked for a different reason.   
The last time James saw his ex-alive was on Christmas Eve.  
James angrily wiped his tears away with his sleeve and looked up into the night sky, smoke swirling around his head. It didn’t matter anyway, Christmas was a stupid holiday. He didn’t want to spend time with family or friends (whom were blowing up his phone at the moment asking where he was) he wanted to spend the next few days wallowing in pity while drunk off his head until the New Years passed and everything was back to normal.   
“Would Chris want you to be like this?” A tiny voice in his head scolded. “He’d want you to spend time with your family, with friends, and try to live your life.”   
“God shut up.” James commanded putting the cigarette in his mouth once again. “I’ll live my life as I damn well please! It doesn’t matter what Chris thinks he’s dead.” The hot tears returned to his eyes once again thinking of their last night together. They had left a party thrown by their mutual friend Amy to get high in Chris’s pickup truck near an old farmstead. Somewhere between them having sex and James passing out in the backseat, Chris had went to go take a leak by an oak tree, got lost in the brush of an overgrown field, and fell through some thin ice. The police found his body two days later.   
“It was an instant death.” The officer had told James when they came to Chris’s family’s house to break the news. “He didn’t feel anything once he hit the water.” It was meant to make him feel better about the loss but instead it just broke his spirit more. What was Chris thinking in those last moments? Did he try and fight his way out of the thick ice? Did he think of James as he fell through? Their future together? No one would ever know, and that killed James to this day.   
“Ah fuck it.” James thought tossing the cigarette down on his deck and smashing it with his foot. “I’m going to dig that old bottle of Jack out of my fridge and watch a horror movie until I pass out. I can’t be bothered with any of this shit anymore.” The young man turned around and opened his door to re-enter his house, only for his cat to rush out and into the dark night.   
“NALA GET BACK HERE!” James yelled to no avail. He rolled his eyes and took after his cat, only catching a mere speck of the running cat far ahead from him. Before he gave up and ran back to his house to get Nala’s cat treats, the cat stopped in front of a figure and rubbed said figures legs.   
“Oh hello there little one.” The voice whispered bending down to pet the cat. James slowed his running down until he was walking towards the figure.   
“God I’m sorry.” James said with a sigh getting closer towards the figure. “Nala tends to get antsy around this time of night and….” He froze when the figure looked up and he got his first real look at him. Said figure was a man about his age with short, messy blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. He was a little chubby and looked shy, but James could feel his face grow warm and the tips of his ears burn.   
“Oh it’s alright.” The man said with a soft smile. “I love when cats let me pet them, it makes me feel honored.”   
“H-Heh yeah….” James muttered, brain scrambling with what to say next. His eyes drifted down to the shirt the man was wearing, an old eighties style ‘Die Hard’ poster shirt, and instantly perked up. “Do you like Die Hard?”   
“I LOVE Die Hard!” The man said with a gasp eyes sparkling. (“Oh fuck he’s cute!” James thought, feeling a bit of panic rise in his chest.) “It’s my favorite movie of all time!”   
“Do you think it’s a Christmas movie though?” James teased.   
“Well duh.” The man said rolling his eyes but smiling. “It’s actually an every time of the year movie.”   
“Too right!” James said smiling. He bent down and picked up Nala, cuddling her to his chest. “I’m James.”   
“I’m Geoff.” Geoff said smiling back. James bit his lip and shuffled his feet, trying to think of what to say next. He didn’t know what these new feelings were; he hadn’t felt this way since….  
Chris.   
“Are you….are you new here?” James asked.   
“Oh no I’m in town for my friend’s Christmas party. I actually live in Boston.” Geoff explained.   
“Ahhh one of those Massholes huh?” James teased instantly regretting what came out of his mouth. Luckily, Geoff just smiled easing James’s fear.  
“I’ll have you know I can’t even drive thank you very much.” Geoff said snickering. “But hey, Bryan’s got plenty of alcohol and food, wanna come back with me? I don’t think he’d mind.” James’s heart raced in his chest again as his brain thought over the offer. On one hand, his brain told him to go back home, put in a horror movie, and wallow in pity. On the other, this man was so cute, and he wanted to get to know him more, especially because he didn’t know how long he had until the boy went back to Boston. James took a deep breath before smiling.   
“Lemme go put Nala back and then I’ll go with you.” James announced.   
“Cool! We’ll be just in time to riff on the movie. Bryan does this thing every year where he puts in a bad Christmas movie and we all riff on it, this year it’s Christmas Shoes.” Geoff explained.   
“Then I’m doubly there!” James announced. “I’ll come back for ya, lemme go take care of the child first.” Geoff nodded with a smile as the man turned back around to hurry back to his house. James didn’t know what these feelings were bubbling up in his heart but he knew one thing.   
He wanted to see Geoff again even after this.


End file.
